Until two or three months ago, all my frequently-used quilting tools were piled into both halves of an old school box, which was in turn balanced on top of a precarious stack of boxes a couple of feet away from my desk.

When I needed another quilting tool, I had to stretch my short arms pretty far and try to grab the thing I needed, being careful (sometimes with more success than others), not to knock the entire school box off the stack, spilling the contents everywhere.

I lost a great 1″ x 6″ ruler that way, and it remained lost for long enough to have to buy another one. It was no way to live.

These sashing segments require a fair amount of tools: needles and thread, of course, plus pins to hold everything in place while I stitch. But before I even get that far, I need rulers and a rotary cutter to cut out the cornerstones and ceramic pencils to mark the stitching lines. If I’m lucky, I don’t need my seam ripper during the process … but I’m not always that lucky.

All this to say that there are many opportunities for supply spillage while assembling sashing segments. It had gotten to the point where most of the tools were just scattered across my desktop instead of being put away in the school box.

So when I thought about what product could really improve my quilting situation, it was an easy decision.

At a pre-pandemic retreat, I had been working on a machine-pieced miniature quilt, and I was walking over to the ironing board every 20 seconds or so to press another 1″ block.

My friend Becca loaned me her rolling cart that had a pressing surface on top, so I only had to pivot 90 degrees in my chair to press the blocks, rather than getting up and walking across the room.

Becca’s rolling cart had shelves underneath the pressing surface, which I didn’t use (they were Becca’s supplies, after all), but it got me thinking about how useful a rolling cart would be in my own tiny stitching area at home.

So, my sister got me this harvest gold beauty for Christmas, and Mom got me a bunch of extras to trick it out, including bamboo organizer inserts, an adorably-tiny 8.5″ square pressing mat, and an equally adorable and even tinier 8″ rotating cutting mat that I could swap with the pressing mat when needed.

This batch of sashing went together surprisingly smoothly, and I attribute it all to having this most excellent rolling cart.

It was the first batch that I’d done since I got my new cart, and it has been so nice to have all my supplies and tools organized and in their assigned places. I don’t have to reach far to get what I need, and I’m even being good about putting everything back in its place when I’m done for the day.

Both of my 1″ x 6″ rulers (the one I finally found where it had fallen behind the boxes, and the replacement I bought for it) are in place on the middle shelf of my rolling cart, in the bin with my rotary cutters, living their best lives and not being lost.

I’m only sorry I waited six years to get my own rolling cart and have a proper place for everything.